Last week, President Obama refused to rearrange his schedule in order to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who will be in New York for the U.N. General Assembly in the coming days. And Obama stood defiant when Israeli officials publicly and loudly complained that Netanyahu would not be granted a private meeting with the Commander-in-Chief.

”I don’t think it’s necessary for the president to rearrange his schedule,” Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.), the top Democrat on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, told The Hill. ”I didn’t think it was appropriate for the prime minister to publicly get into a dispute with the president of the United States, since we’re both very closely working together to impose sanctions and to force Iran to stop its development of a nuclear weapon.”

”Maybe Netanyahu’s for [Republican candidate Mitt] Romney. And he’s making a mistake if he is,” Frank told The Hill when asked why he thought Israel had leaked the news of a perceived ”snub” to the Reuters wire service.

”I think it was unwise for him to do as much,” he said. ”I think they’ve pulled back a little bit.’

”I think Obama played it right,” Frank added. ”The Israelis have to consider American public opinion; America’s not ready to go to war until it’s absolutely necessary.

Here’s Eliot Engel, a leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, dismissing Netanyahu’s ploy:

”There are always things that are done on both sides – with us, with the Israelis – for domestic political consumption, for party-building,” Engel told The Hill.

The tone coming from the other side of the aisle is markedly different, as Republicans seek to take advantage of Obama’s strength by turning it on its head. To wit, here is the text of a letter signed by 128 House Republicans:

”We are astounded by your refusal to grant this request to one of our closest allies at such a critical time for that region…The rejection of this request represents disturbing treatment of a vital partner and illustrates a lack of regard for the indispensable relationship between the United States and Israel and the current dynamics in the region which are essential to our national security.”

What a brilliant ruling by the United States Supreme Court on the affordable health care act (Obamacare). Stunningly brilliant in my humble opinion. I could not have ask for a better ruling on a potentially catastrophic healthcare act than We The People Of The United States received from our Supreme Court.

If the court had upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate under the commerce clause it would have meant the catastrophic loss of the most precious thing we own. Our individual liberty. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Supreme Court.

There is no mandate to buy private for-profit health insurance. There is only a nominal tax on income eligible individuals who don’t have health insurance. This is a HUGE! difference. And I suspect that tax may be subject to constitutional challenge as it ripens.

This is a critically important distinction. Because under the commerce clause individuals would have been compelled to support the most costly, dangerous, unethical, morally repugnant, and defective type of health insurance you can have. For-profit health insurance, and the for-profit proxies called private non-profits and co-ops.

Equally impressive in the courts ruling was the majorities willingness to throw out the whole law if the court could not find a way to sever the individual mandate under the commerce clause from the rest of the act. Bravo! Supreme Court.

Thanks to the Supreme Court we now have an opportunity to fix our healthcare crisis the right way. Without the obscene delusion that Washington can get away with forcing Americans to buy a costly, dangerous and highly defective private product (for-profit health insurance).

During the passage of ACA/Obamacare some politicians said that the ACA was better than nothing. But the truth was that until the Supreme Court fixed it the ACA/Obamacare was worse than nothing at all. It would have meant the catastrophic loss of your precious liberty for the false promise and illusion of healthcare security under the deadly and costly for-profit healthcare system that dominates American healthcare.

As everyone knows now. The fix for our healthcare crisis is a single payer system (Medicare for all) like the rest of the developed world has. Or a robust Public Option choice available to everyone on day one that can quickly lead to a single payer system.

Talk of privatizing/profiteering from Medicare or social security is highly corrupt and Crazy! talk. And you should cut the political throats of any politicians giving lip service to such an asinine idea. Medicare should be expanded, not privatized or eliminated.

We still have a healthcare crisis in America. With hundreds of thousands dieing needlessly every year in America. And a for-profit medical industrial complex that threatens the security and health of the entire world. The ACA/Obamacare will not fix that.

The for-profit medical industrial complex has already attacked the world with H1N1 killing thousands, and injuring millions. And more attacks are planned for profit, and to feed their greed.

To all of you who have fought so hard to do the kind and right thing for your fellow human beings at a time of our greatest needs I applaud you. Be proud of your-self.

God Bless You my fellow human beings. I’m proud to be one of you. You did good.

What does “jacksmith”‘s comment have to do with the story above it? Is there no one who has any comment for me to read on the story above? Comment sections are lonely places to write separate stories on entirely different topics. No one sees it or reads past the first few sentences — about as long as it takes to discover that it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic on which it was posted.

I am dying to know, though, what people think of the topic of the article.

Barbara: “jacksmith’s comment” has nothing directly to do with the story, although i did read the whole comment due to interest in his pov regarding the ACA SCOTUS decision. I find i’m much in agreement with his overall views.
For that matter, Barbara, why didn’t you express some view of the article?

Imho, the article was informative and i hadn’t seen it on the news services i follow. This is likely due to Faux Noise not being a news source (nor one any intelligent, educated person would waste time watching) i follow.
I also think the item was not important enough for much, if any comment. Should Mr. Netanyahu wish to have an appointment with President Obama, specially now in a very busy time, perhaps he ought to call ahead like any other not-so-self-important person would do. It’s called courtesy. When you “drop in” on someone, they might be too busy to see you right then. Your bad.

For Netanyahu to not only try to inject himself into American politics, especially to denigrate our sitting President and support his challenger is crass at best. Considering that even Ehud Barak, of Israel, has stated that President Obama has been the Most Friendliest President to Israel EVER speaks volumes.

For Bibi (Netanyahu’s nickname) to try to FORCE President Obama to draw HIS ‘Red Lines’ concerning Iran is just plain Ludicrous, one does NOT do that to the ally that send you $ billions every year, sends high tech weapons systems and helps to build the Israeli Iron Shield Defense system to protect from rocket attacks mostly from the Gaza strip, which Israel treats very badly, so it is NO wonder that the Hamas Palestinians are mad and send the occasional low tech, usually home-made rocket at Israel. (I am not defending the Palestinian’s use of rockets or force, but I am certainly not supporting the way that Israel has kept the Gaza Strip nearly completely closed off to imports not allowing exports so that their terribly economy and infrastructure decay even further and attacking them with jets, artillery and a much more modern and larger force than the Gaza strip has.)

Netanyahu wants to drag us into yet ANOTHER war in the ME on their behalf when we have been battered and our coffers drained in the last 2 wars that were started there under Bush by his lies about WMDs, in Iraq he was trying to say that Saddam helped the ‘terrorist’ attack on the Trade Center when all he wanted was to capture the oil fields, loot the Nation and give No-Bid contracts to his VP’s Company Halliburton and the Mercenary Co Blackwater along with guaranteeing hundreds of billions of dollars for the Military Industrial Complex.

Afghanistan, while Al Qaida did train there, we have to remember that it was our very own CIA that built Al Qaida in order to fight the Soviet Union when they attacked Afghanistan. We could of, and did, destroy their training camps and track down the Al Oaida individuals without doing a full invasion of their Nation. Afghanistan, however, has IMMENSE mineral wealth, largely untapped, as well as the drug trade, both of which are highly profitable for those with few or no morals, which describes to a T the Bush Admin and his merry band of warmongering, profiteering Neocons.

In BOTH cases Bush, Cheney and the rest of the Neocons were looking at Never Ending wars in which they and their buddies would profit to the tune of hundreds of billions if not multiple trillions with the gas, oil and minerals they intended to rob from these Nations….and we wonder just why these nations have a deep seated hatred of us.

NOW, Netanyahu wants us to fight his war for him, saying that the Iranians are CLOSE TO HAVING THE BOMB, which Israel already has hundreds of, yet will Not declare them nor will they sign the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty? Iran has signed it, so why should Israel be the ONLY nuke armed Nation in the area. Israel has been beating this same drum for nearly 2 decades now, saying it will only be a year or two before they have The Bomb, yet those ‘Year or Two’s’ keep passing with no Bomb for Iran. I think that they have cried WOLF way too many times now

In all reality, Bibi is trying to take everyone’s eyes off from the fact that Israel (under Bibi) has NO intentions of promoting peace with the Palestinans is continuing to grab land by building and expanding settlements on the West Bank, which has been totally against the very charter that Israel signed when the UN made them a full Nation State and has continually dismissed UN ruling saying that the Settlements are illegal and that they must ALL be removed, back to the 1967 demarcation line. Bibi is quite disingenious about how he is going bout it, not only will he NOT get his war with Iran, but the way that he is going against International Law in so many areas, and now even the American Jews are being firmly against him, and it may well be enough to get Ol Bibi tossed out of office or declared an International War Criminal.

Netanyahu may well be the impetus, on a world stage, to have severe sanctions placed on his Government and International trade, which would lead to him, at the very least, removed from office and a real peace being made with the Palestinians as well as forcing Israel to live up to it’s UN Charter and getting out of the West bank entirely thus giving the Palestinians at least their West bank land back and allowing them to FINALLY have their own State.

America is tired of Israel’s loose cannon and so are the American Jews. Bibi is being isolated and is becoming totally irrelevant to the rest of the world aside from his constant threats to start WWIII with an attack on Iran. I do not think the world will stand for this, neither the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, Europe nor anyone in the Middle East.

Bibi has drawn his own red lines and all it has done is to paint himself into a corner from which he cannot extricate himself without eating a whole lot of crow and losing everything that he has tried to accomplish.

President Obama was entirely correct to not meet with this monster of a Leader, wheter Israel is our ally or not!